Almirola Earns Xfinity Win At Talladega

Aric Almirola took the lead with four laps left in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, held off Elliott Sadler at the finish and got the third victory of his career.

Almirola beat Sadler, the series points leader, to the finish line by .142 seconds.

The win was Almirola’s first of the season and it came in a Ford owned by Biagi DenBeste race team.

“They let me run this thing seven or eight times a year, and I have so much fun, especially at the speedway races,” an elated Almirola said in Victory Lane. “Doug Yates (of Roush Yates Engines) brings some awesome horsepower, and our Ford Mustang was super-fast. I knew it right from the beginning of practice. We ran about 10 laps in practice and I said, ‘Put it on jack stands. We’re ready to go. This thing is fast.’

“What an awesome day.”

The race was now awesome for everybody as several large wrecks took out a number of cars.

Joey Logano ran third, followed by Ben Kennedy and Erik Jones, who led the race with five laps left but couldn’t hold off the charge of Almirola on the next-to-last lap. Matt Tifft, Michael Annett, Justin Allgaier, Daniel Suarez and Jeff Green completed the top 10.

“We were just one spot short today,” Sadler said.

Kennedy was racing for the first time since the 2016 season-ending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“It was a blast out there—we had a great car,” Kennedy said of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. “I wish we had another shot at it. It was fun.”